By The Prague Post

Environmentalists have described as "shameful" moves by the Czech authorities to further cut subsidies for renewable energy. The government has approved a draft law for cutting support for renewables following concerns over the amounts ploughed into the sector in recent years.

According to the proposed law, yet to be considered by lawmakers, from next year there will be no subsidy for new solar power or biogas plants, while new hydropower and wind-power facilities will see subsidies ended from the beginning of 2015. Existing plants will be unaffected.

]]>Czech RepublicFri, 02 Aug 2013 10:59:25 +0000Czech government votes to end support for renewables from 2014http://www.greenhorizon-online.com/index.php/Czech-Republic/czech-government-votes-to-end-support-for-renewablesf-from-2014.html
July 26, 2013

By Bloomberg

The Czech government approved a draft law to end support for renewable energy, proposing to stop subsidies for new projects at the end of this year.The plan was adopted during an extraordinary cabinet session yesterday and is subject to approval by parliament, the government said in a statement on its website.

Subsidies for renewable-power sources, particularly solar plants, have raised prices for Czech energy users in the past three years as the cost is passed on through customer bills.

May 25, 2011

By Mongabay.com

The far-flung Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), located in the Pacific Ocean, has created legal history by challenging the decision to extend the life of a massive coal plant in the Czech Republic. The over 600-island nation, Micronesia, argues that greenhouse gas emissions from the Czech plant are impacting the way of life in Micronesia, many of whose islands are facing submersion under rising sea levels.

]]>Czech RepublicWed, 25 May 2011 11:23:05 +0000Czech companies accused of exploiting migrant workershttp://www.greenhorizon-online.com/index.php/Czech-Republic/czech-companies-accused-of-exploiting-migrant-workers.html
Romanian, Hungarian and Slovak workers recruited for a new season in Czech forests

By the Initiative for the Rights of Migrant Workers

May 16, 2011

Prague - A number of Czech forestry companies who have been accused of gravely mistreating their migrant employees in the past are currently in the midst of recruiting new workers from Romania, Hungary, and elsewhere for this year's season. Job agencies in these countries are being contacted by the Czech-based companies to recruit a few hundred workers to do forestry work in different areas of the Czech Republic.

A large number of migrant forest workers have reportedly been misled and taken advantage of since 2009, in what many media outlets as well as the Organization for Security and Co-operation Europe (OSCE) have referred to as a case of vast exploitation in Central and Eastern Europe.

Two firms in particular are suspected of mistreating their employees; Affumicata a.s. and Wood Servis Praha s.r.o., which were part of the chain of subcontractors mainly for the Czech Less & Forest s.r.o. Over the course of the 2009 and 2010 working seasons the firms recruited workers from Vietnam, Romania and Slovakia to clean and plant trees in Czech forests, promising salaries that started at CZK 10,000 (around EUR 400) with arranged housing. In 2010 the chain of companies was complicated further: while the workers had contracts with Wood Servis Praha s.r.o., it was an interrelated company Madera Servicio s.r.o. that received contracts from Less & Forest s.r.o.

However, hundreds of the migrant workers were allegedly forced to sign contracts in Czech, and received either a small fraction of their salaries or nothing at all. In addition, many of the workers reported terrible working and living conditions including: little to no food, long working days, cramped living spaces, and intimidation and threats from the management.

"Those who have been personally affected or know anyone who has, or if someone has any information about suspicious offers in the forestry sector in the Czech Republic, they can contact us at stromkari@centrum.cz. They can also call toll-free from the Czech Republic on Wednesdays from 12:00 until 20:00 at 8-000-77777," said Marek Canek from the Prague-based Initiative for the Rights of Migrant Workers.

During bilateral talks held in Warsaw on October 22 between the Czech and Polish governments, the Czech Republic's Environment Minister requested pollution data from 24 Polish-operated factories in Ostrava, the Czech Republic's third-largest city, according to the Prague Daily Monitor. The Czech Republic and Poland are preparing for joint implementation of an air-quality monitoring system in industrial districts on both sides of the border, starting from the beginning of 2011.

Air pollution was just one among several trans-boundary environmental issues discussed between Polish Environment Minister Nubuster Andezej Kraszewski and Czech counterpart Pavel Drobil. According to Polish officials, issues on the table include: frontier water management (including flood-related problems), cooperation in national parks, climate change, results from the latest EU biological diversity convention, and availability of EU funds for environmental protection.

Czech Minister of Environment Povel Drobil accepted the resignation of Frantisek Krejci, head of Sumava National Park, on November 1. According to the Czech News Agency (CTK), Krejci's resignation is the result of 'conceptual' differences.

Environment Ministry Spokesperson Jarmila Krebsova made a public announcement that Krejci was in agreement with the government's new Sumava policy and had resigned voluntarily, while the environmental association Friends of the Earth maintains that Drobil forced Krejci from the post.

Krejci was appointed head of Sumava in 2007 under the previous eco-minister, Martin Bursik, who encouraged a stringent park protection scheme for areas deemed most vulnerable. Environmental activist Jaromir Blaha warned, however, that a joint-stock forestry company from Hluboka was greatly interested in logging in the Sumava range.

Krejci claims that his efforts have helped to stabilise the park's ecological balance, and that Sumava's total space of protected areas will not be reduced following his departure. Government sources also suggest that Environment Minister Drobil will seek to cooperate with Krejci in the future.

Sumava is the Czech Republic's largest national park, covering an area of 680 square kilometres in the Plzen and South Bohemia regions, along the German and Austrian borders.

As reported by Czech News Agency (CTK)last week, there are several toxic waste sites in the Czech Republic that are raising fears of an imminent environmental disaster on par with October 4th's disastrous flood of toxic sludge from a waste reservoir in Ajka, Hungary.

High on the list of concerns is Central Europe's last uranium mine, scheduled to be closed in three years' time. Experts are currently discussing risks that operational wastes from the mine pose to surrounding sedimentation in the event of heavy rainfall.

Other risky sites in the Czech Republic, according to CTK, include Spolana in Neratovice, Spolchemie in Usti nad Labem, Synthesia in Pardubice and the biggest polluter in the Czech Republic, Deza, in Valasske Mezirici.

Click here for more information in English concerning the original CTK article.

Nov. 30, 2008

Three months before his country assumes the EU presidency, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has warned that Europe will suffer serious energy shortages if current climate policy "dogma" prevails.

Addressing the Bled Strategic Forum on August 31, Topolanek said that "despotic" regimes in the Middle East and Russia will have Europeans more dependent than ever on fossil fuels "as a consequence of erroneous recent and present policy making on account of [...] submission to the fad of combating global warming and egotistical efforts running counter to nature."

In taking over the EU presidency in January, the Czech government is tasked with finalising an agreement on the European Commission's comprehensive package of climate and energy measures. The Czech prime minister champions a huge expansion of nuclear power as a means of curbing emissions and decreasing fossil fuel dependence.

While not wishing to "call into question the validity of environmental protection," Topolanek told forum members that the EU energy debate has become unbalanced.

Feb. 27, 2008

Prior to a fall meeting in Prague between the European Commission and the Czech Transport Ministry to negotiate EU investment of EUR 5.8 billion in transport infrastructure, NGOs warned that existing development plans are a relic from the Czech Republic's communist past and could result in a complete squandering of public monies and unnecessary environmental damage.

The Environmental Legal Service, a Czech NGO, sent letters to EU commissioners Barros, Dimas and Huebner, urging that action be taken to address shortcomings in the Operational Programme for Transport (OPT) outlined for the 2007-13 period.

The Czech Republic's Supreme Audit Office concluded recently that the government's spending of public money on national transport projects is both unjustified and ineffective. Motorway and railway development, for example, is being carried out according to schemes dating back to the 1970s, and there have been no new assessments or suggested alternative routes. One case in point is that OPT's predetermined road connection between Brno and Vienna involves a border crossing point at Mikulov, though opponents argue it would be cheaper and less harmful environmentally to reroute through Breslau.

"Project prioritisation is based on political pressures rather than on expert assessment of necessity, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact," said Martin Konecny, EU funds coordinator for CEE Bankwatchand Friends of the Earth Europe.

The Supreme Audit Office also discovered that Czech motorways are proving unjustifiably expensive-even more so than new German motorways of comparable quality despite far lower labour costs in the Czech Republic.

"The EU should not finance transport projects without an objective comparison of different variants from transport, economic and environmental points of view," said Pavel Cerny of the Environmental Law Service. "The Czech transport plan must not be approved in its current state, which would fix the routes of problematic motorways. Pressure from Brussels seems to be the only way to bring any order to the Czech transport planning process."